And then there was 1

Over the past week, Michael & I have set up a pool, set up a second pool, painstakingly transferred the water from the first pool to the second, emptied the first pool of its contents, rinsed & dried the first pool and the tarp underneath it, then folded it up and returned it to it's store of origin. It's been a very rough 6 days, but we officially finished last night around 7PM! Besides the fact that the grass where the 1st pool stood is crushed and pretty smelly - yeah, smelly like rotten fish! - the yard is what I would call a marsh from all of the excess pool water and rain we keep getting. I'm ready for the rain to stop!

The latest in chaos began last Monday, Memorial Day - a day that we will not soon forget! After our wonderful weekend get-away, Michael & I decided that a family day was in order. Our friends had just gotten & set-up a pool in their backyard, so we figured we'd head over there for a few hours of outdoor play. Disregard the fact that it was a dark, gloomy, chilly, rainy day, we figured a little rain water wouldn't hurt any of us. After all, the sun might peek through the clouds. And, getting out of the house, even in the rain, sounded much better than being couped up inside of the house all day with nothing to do.

Let me be the first to warn you all that rain water will indeed hinder the logic and reasoning part of your brain, because that's the only thing I can attribute the following events too!

When we arrived, the sun was doing it's best to shine through the clouds so we allowed the kids to jump into the newly filled pool. While the adults stood around watching the little guys swim and shiver from the cold, my friend D told me that the pool we were looking at was not the original pool they had purchased. The first pool was still sitting in their garage, awaiting it's eminent return to the store. She explained that they decided it was a bit too flimsy for their yard since the ground was a little uneven. Her hubby decided that they would be better off with a pool that had a more rigid frame. My first mistake was asking, "Can I see the first pool?" I should have just walked away, but I couldn't. My brain wasn't working correctly remember? When I saw the first pool, the picture of the family playing inside of it looked so tempting to me. I had flashes of my family happily playing in the cool water with the hot sun beating down on everything around us. Thoughts of not being bored this summer with all 3 monkies at home was too much for me to resist. As we returned to the patio, I found myself asking Michael if we could just buy the first pool from them. I explained that it would be perfect for us and our really big backyard, and how we would spend countless hours playing & splashing and building family-fun memories with our children. I even mentioned the fact that the box said "15 minutes to water" in big, bold letters across the box. I took him into the garage, showing him all of the wonderful gadgets included - besides the obvious, it had a pump and a vacuum! And it was such a good price too!!! We mulled it over, discussed the fact that we've talked about getting an above ground pool for 2 years now, and it really did seem like a good deal. Then talked ourselves out of it by reminding ourselves that we hadn't set aside the $200 it would cost to purchase. Then talked ourselves back into it again by remembering that I would be getting paid this week.

Let me cut to the chase by saying that after a bit of back & forth, we decided to relieve D & C of their extra pool, saving them a trip to the Big W to make the return.

Upon our return home, I unloaded the kids and started trying to figure out dinner. It took me a few minutes to realize that Michael hadn't come into the house yet, so I started to investigate. Low & behold, I found him outside with the pool beginning to set it up - in the rain! Ok, sprinkles, but it was trying to rain! So, like the good wife I am, I quickly changed clothes and headed outside to help :)

It took a good 2 hours of tugging, dragging and straightening, but we eventually felt like we'd found a good spot to set up our pool. After making a quick dash to the local toy store for an electric pump (me), Michael got the top tube inflated and ready for water. He then put the hose into the pool and thus began the fill-up. Well, the first one! After about 15 minutes, we noticed that all of the water was rushing to one side, which meant that the ground we thought was level enough, wasn't. Michael quickly turned the hose off and we started scouting out another spot. We figured that since there was less than an inch of water in the bottom, we would just drag it over to the new area - wasn't going to happen!!! Water is allot heavier than you might think it is. So, we had to empty the barely filled pool, move it to the new location, re-straighten it, then begin filling it back up. After another hour or so, the hose was doing it's thing and we were exhausted! After almost 4 hours of filling, we had reached the 1 foot mark, but it was nearing midnight and we were ready for bed!

The next morning as Michael left for work, he turned the hose back on. I had to turn it off and back on over the course of the day because of errand running, showers & baths, etc., but we're guessing that it took about 7-8 hours to completely fill. Hallelujah, it was finally done! Unfortunately it was also sometime after 10PM.

Since I had promised the kids that they could swim as soon as it was filled, that was the first thing they asked me when they woke up on Wednesday. So after breakfast, they all donned their bathing suits and were out the door waiting for the required adult supervision - ME - before entering their new playland. It didn't take long to figure out that they wouldn't be able to get in or out of the pool without the ladder, so we had to go back into the house while I attempted to quickly assemble it - with 6 little hands doing their best to 'help' me. Once assembled and in place, Alex was the first one in. His lips immediately turned a lovely shade of blue and his teeth started to chatter, but he insisted that it wasn't cold! As he splashed around, water started to slosh around a bit - as it would when someone is splashing and frolicking - then "IT" happened.

Water went sloshing over the side, which really wasn't that big of a deal. The big deal occurred when more water went over, which made the side wall collapse onto itself, sending more water over, collapsing the wall even more. Within no less than 5 seconds, we'd lost a foot of water out of the pool and there seemed to be no end to the spillage. So, I raced over to the collapsed side and pulled it back to an upright position. I was soaking wet, freezing cold, and quickly sinking into the saturated, muddy ground. I was standing in about 6 inches of water that had no place to go - I did mention it's been raining allot here didn't I? And, moreover I was a nervous wreck! I quickly pulled the kids out of the pool that I now deemed as un-safe and called Michael to tell him what had just happened.

Skipping ahead to the end of the day... By the time Michael had returned home from work, I had already been online looking for a new pool; something more sturdy and safe for kids to hang onto and play inside of. I had also called D to ask if by some chance she still had her receipt, since, as you might recall, they had originally purchased the now condemned pool. Michael was totally up-in-arms over the prospect of setting up another pool, but I wouldn't relent. I was completely convinced that we had to get the exact same pool that D & C had purchased because it was sturdier. It was also only $40 more and, in my opinion, well worth the extra money for the peace of mind it would give me...err, us! So, Michael reluctantly agreed that if the Big W would accept the return, we would do it my way and get another, better, safer pool.

The next day (this is now Thursday) I headed to the Big W to speak with a manager about the horribly unsafe monster that currently sat in my backyard, full of water and chlorine. She said that as long as I had a receipt, they would indeed accept the return and give us a full refund, so I marched home and sent Michael a quick email. The email informed him that when he got home, we would be heading to the Big T to purchase the other pool and then would figure out the rest later. Michael, being the sweet man he is, didn't argue (too much). When he arrived home, he quickly changed and readied himself for what lie ahead. While my younger sister stayed with the kids, we took her truck to the Big T and made our purchase.

That evening, with the help of T, my sister's boyfriend, Michael started the assembly process for pool #2. He completed the first portion prior to dinner (and darkness) and said that it was actually easier to put together than pool #1, that claimed "15 minutes to water". Unfortunately, the construction stopped for the evening, but we were at least on our way.

Michael arrived home earlier than usual on Friday to resume the construction of pool #2. We were all anxious to be done with this whole horrible idea of having a pool. But, were also looking forward to the reward once it would finally be completed. It took us less than an hour to finish setting up, and after a few location changes, we were ready to begin filling it with water.

Since we had just filled the first pool 2 days earlier with about 1600 gallons of water, we weren't real excited about doing the same thing all over again - our water bill is going to be outrageous! So, we figured we would simply siphon the water from pool #1 to pool #2. Sounds easy right? A big, resounding WRONG!!! We did successfully start the siphoning process with allot of arguing about the best way to do it, and a few false starts, but the water just wasn't coming through the hose very fast. So, in order to expedite the pool filling process, Michael added the regular hose to the mix. So, now we have 2 hoses filling up pool #2, one with fresh water from the tap, one with already chlorinated water from pool #1. By this point we were thoroughly frustrated and hot, so we decided to 'jump in'. While the water level slowly rose in the 2nd pool (about an inch an hour maybe), Michael, Ian & I splashed and played and cooled off.

It was at this point that Michael's frustrations actually produced a new idea. Since the siphoning wasn't really working, he decided to grab a bucket. Yes folks, you read that right! Michael started emptying the old pool into the new pool...one bucket a time! I just sat in the cool water and watched him work :) After all, there was only 1 bucket and I had to think about what I would fix for dinner.

(In case you care, I settled on ordering pizza and sent my little sis to pick it up.)

So, Saturday rolls around and the new pool is less than half full at this point. The siphon has stopped working - probably not enough pressure to push/pull the water through the hose - and we just can't bring ourselves to spend another $1 on more fresh water. So, I grab a beach pail, Michael grabs the mop bucket and Morgann & Alex both grab other beach pails. And so it goes. After more than 2 hours, Michael & the kids have successfully filled the pool another foot and are ready for lunch. (Notice that I didn't include myself in that sentence? I had thrown in the towel long before due to my mommy-duties of laundry and cleaning that had been neglected all week because of this whole fiasco). After lunch, Michael & Alex returned to their task, determined to get pool #2 filled. Though it wasn't even close to be finished, around 2PM Alex and his friend C jumped in for some well-deserved play time. Meanwhile, Michael's family came over for a BBQ dinner that we'd planned earlier in the week, with the intention of setting up a trampoline they had purchased for the kids. I think it's safe to assume that it didn't get set up :)

Sunday rolled around and pool #2 was finally filled - cue the angels singing The Hallelujah Chorus - but we still had pool #1 to deal with. With no way to get the rest of the water out of it, Michael & I rolled up our sleeves and prepared ourselves for some seriously hard labor. We pulled & tugged, inch by inch, to get the stupid thing turned over - have I mentioned that water is extremely heavy?!? - and just when we thought it was empty, it wasn't! Finally, when the last little trickle of water was dumped out, it was time to rinse it off! Yea! More water...on our already soaking wet, muddy lawn. And, remember the smelly grass? We discovered that little jewel when we moved the tarp that had been placed between the pool and grass at set-up. Let me tell you, grass that isn't completely dead, but is extremely wet, stinks really, really bad! My gag reflex kicked in about that time and I had to run away, far away, from the entire project. Thankfully, Michael was too tired to gripe at me for leaving him with it :) But, I did finally return to do my part in rinsing both the pool and the tarp.

While the 2 rinsed-off items sat in the hot sun to dry out, Michael, the kids and I jumped into pool #2 and finally enjoyed about 3 hours of fun play time. We even brought out all of the new toys we'd purchased - a floating ring toss game, 5 pool noodles and my floating chair. We had a great time together, just like the one that my brain envisioned while standing in D's garage looking at the picture of the happy family on the box of pool #1.

Was it all worth it? Ask me in a few months...right now, my arms & back say definitely not :)

*Stick around and I'll post about returning pool #1 to the Big W. That's a whole 'nother story all by itself...